7.18.2006

Uwe Blab Memorial First Annual FD Sportswriting Award

On rare occasion, we will point to something so simple and well-crafted (not by us) that it just has to be read. Not much of a basketball tie-in here, but having ROYAL PRIDE in this day and age is completely Freedarko, not to mention problematizing mythology in the context of the Red Sox. And for those of you too lazy to click on the link, here is the masterful sixth paragraph:

One last thing. Someone needs to send David Ortiz and the Rest of the World to seperate showers. I can't take the coverage of this guy anymore. The festival-like atmosphere after he stole a base in the 8th inning was sickening. I know the Royals are the Garden City Junior College to Boston's Harvard, but damn, this isn't little league. Again, its the same problem with the clutch mythology and the steroid's hysteria (as Joe Sheehan has religiously pointed out): the double-standard is so thorough that you can see it like a phone-book. Some guys are good guys, likeable, even lovable. Some guys are cheaters, chokers and Satanic representations of all we hate. Often, they've done the same things, performed exactly the same and said the same non-quotes postgame. Terrell Owens is Public Enemy Number One for calling attention to himself but Big Papi is just a huggable demiGod.WE FEEL YOU.

6 Comments:

"Terrell Owens is Public Enemy Number One for calling attention to himself but Big Papi is just a huggable demiGod."

Sorry, but I call bullshit. Terrell Owens is not public enemy #1 for calling attention to himself, it's more like screaming at his coach on the sidelines and calling out veteran teammates in the press (like when he said Jeff Garcia was gay -- how many other athletes can you see doing that?). So, sorry to pimp the conventional wisdom, but it's some serious revisionism to decide that TO's biggest crime was his need for attention.

Well, you have half-point I guess, but then again, so do I. TO was so roundly hated on for about a year straight, that its hard to pin down what his crime was. Sometimes he was greedy, sometimes he was selfish, sometimes he was vain, etc. However, a major turning point in the TO Saga was the story about him being upset the Eagles didn't honor his 100 TD Catch (or something like that).

Then we got a week of TEAM FIRST/PLAYER SECOND from the Dan Patrick's of the World.

Lastly however, I'm no fan of TO, and it may have been a poorly choosen example. Its the same problem with Bonds; is there a middle ground between not defending the guy but also not jumping on the witch hunt? Derrick Turnbow was busted by the IOC for steroids while competing for Team USA baseball: was he booed at the All-Star game? etc etc

i've always wanted to defend TO because of my cultivated dislike for philadelphia fans, but unfortunately there's not much to glorify there. same with bonds. they're creepy, dysfunctional loners who seem to have latched to the worst of athlete grandstanding. someone like moss or chad johnson can be misunderstood and fall back on cultural relativism; bonds and owens, though, have gone to great lengths to make themselves into self-perpetuating islands.

both had years of singular dominance, a constant miasma of steroid allegations, medical problems/death in the family, and a somewhat prickly personality. yet one is the heartwarming white guy who we all love, and the other is the angry black man who we hate so much that we want to send him to jail for playing baseball.

both had years of singular dominance, a constant miasma of steroid allegations, medical problems/death in the family, and a somewhat prickly personality. yet one is the heartwarming white guy who we all love, and the other is the angry black man who we hate so much that we want to send him to jail for playing baseball.